Dishwasher installation
Jun. 15th, 2011 12:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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fandom_jointsWe just got a new dishwasher, since the tines on the racks of the old one were rusting off, and the interior wasn't looking real great. I was pleasantly surprised at the fact that the whole process actually went as planned, and while bits of it are a little fiddly, it was overall not that difficult. Nothing even leaked when I ran a test wash!
Before starting, I checked some videos for dishwasher removal and installation, since it's hard to tell from just looking at an installed dishwasher what exactly might be attached to the back of it under the counter. The video that seemed clearest and least condescending, if still perhaps overly cautious about safety, here, didn't have a copper water line, and the electrical hookup box looked slightly different from mine. Still, checking the video was nice because having a general idea of what everything might look like was much better than just reading installation instructions with wireframe diagrams. I had to go through a few videos before I found one that wasn't irritating, and perhaps that was helpful too in figuring out what I was looking at with mine, because it matched none of them exactly. And of course, before I got the new dishwasher, I had no installation instructions to help me remove the old one, and I didn't want to mess around with disconnecting stuff while (if) the delivery guys waited.
I spent about an hour yesterday unhooking the electricity, water feed line and drain line, and undoing the screws holding the dishwasher to the countertop. Today, the delivery folks came and pulled out the old dishwasher, leaving me with a new one on the kitchen floor for me to install. It actually took only the hour and a half they suggested it would to install!
Many websites tell you to flip the circuit breaker for the dishwasher before messing around with it - this is necessary if you have a direct-wired one, but if it plugs into the wall under your sink, you can just unplug it to produce the same effect.
They will not give you a cord for the dishwasher. So if your old one plugged into the wall rather than being directly wired to the house, don't let them remove the cord with your old dishwasher, including the metal adapter that holds it to the electrical box of the washer. You'll need it (or a new one, if it's looking too worn) to get power to the new dishwasher.
If you are doing this by yourself, have the delivery folks line the dishwasher up directly in front of the cutout. I found it easy to lift the front end and roll it back on its wheels by myself, but moving it sideways might scratch up your floor if you don't have someone to help you pick it up. I didn't need assistance for any of the rest of the installation once I had it lined up. (But I also didn't bother tipping it over to adjust the feet, as the instructions suggested, since I didn't need to move the wheel position - you'd probably want extra hands for that too.)
If you have a copper water supply line, the hookup on its end might not fit well into the dishwasher's newer fitting. If I had a pipe cutter, I could have shortened the piece that made the nut not thread on properly, but since I didn't know what the line was going to look like when I ordered the dishwasher, I decided to use the new flexible metal hose I'd added to the order (suggested by the "necessary additional parts" section of Home Depot's appliance ordering process). Also, there was nasty green corrosion on the end of the pipe, which I was a little concerned about.
They will give you a new drain hose with your dishwasher. Use it - the old one had some really nasty grime in it, as did the under the sink end where it fit onto our disposal. I cleaned out as much of the grime on the disposal as I could reach before adding the new hose. (On the other hand, you probably don't need a new water feed line unless you're concerned about the state of your old one, as I was.) Strangely, my new dishwasher came with water in the pump already, some of which leaked out all over the floor when I took the cap off to put the drain line on. A towel to shove under there proved quite helpful - they suggest a shallow pan, but I didn't have one handy that would be that shallow.
Tools I ended up using: a screwdriver, a socket wrench set including a screwdriver-style handle for the sockets (which worked best at reaching the screw-with-outer-hex-head holding the electrical cover plate), an adustable wrench, channellock pliers (mostly to get my water shutoff valve fully shut off, since they're very stiff), a level, a couple boards to prop up the dishwasher while trying to adjust the levelling feet, a drill for screwing the holding brackets onto the countertop (pressboard-style countertop undersides are hard to screw into with a hand screwdriver), a sponge and towel, and a flashlight.
Before starting, I checked some videos for dishwasher removal and installation, since it's hard to tell from just looking at an installed dishwasher what exactly might be attached to the back of it under the counter. The video that seemed clearest and least condescending, if still perhaps overly cautious about safety, here, didn't have a copper water line, and the electrical hookup box looked slightly different from mine. Still, checking the video was nice because having a general idea of what everything might look like was much better than just reading installation instructions with wireframe diagrams. I had to go through a few videos before I found one that wasn't irritating, and perhaps that was helpful too in figuring out what I was looking at with mine, because it matched none of them exactly. And of course, before I got the new dishwasher, I had no installation instructions to help me remove the old one, and I didn't want to mess around with disconnecting stuff while (if) the delivery guys waited.
I spent about an hour yesterday unhooking the electricity, water feed line and drain line, and undoing the screws holding the dishwasher to the countertop. Today, the delivery folks came and pulled out the old dishwasher, leaving me with a new one on the kitchen floor for me to install. It actually took only the hour and a half they suggested it would to install!
Many websites tell you to flip the circuit breaker for the dishwasher before messing around with it - this is necessary if you have a direct-wired one, but if it plugs into the wall under your sink, you can just unplug it to produce the same effect.
They will not give you a cord for the dishwasher. So if your old one plugged into the wall rather than being directly wired to the house, don't let them remove the cord with your old dishwasher, including the metal adapter that holds it to the electrical box of the washer. You'll need it (or a new one, if it's looking too worn) to get power to the new dishwasher.
If you are doing this by yourself, have the delivery folks line the dishwasher up directly in front of the cutout. I found it easy to lift the front end and roll it back on its wheels by myself, but moving it sideways might scratch up your floor if you don't have someone to help you pick it up. I didn't need assistance for any of the rest of the installation once I had it lined up. (But I also didn't bother tipping it over to adjust the feet, as the instructions suggested, since I didn't need to move the wheel position - you'd probably want extra hands for that too.)
If you have a copper water supply line, the hookup on its end might not fit well into the dishwasher's newer fitting. If I had a pipe cutter, I could have shortened the piece that made the nut not thread on properly, but since I didn't know what the line was going to look like when I ordered the dishwasher, I decided to use the new flexible metal hose I'd added to the order (suggested by the "necessary additional parts" section of Home Depot's appliance ordering process). Also, there was nasty green corrosion on the end of the pipe, which I was a little concerned about.
They will give you a new drain hose with your dishwasher. Use it - the old one had some really nasty grime in it, as did the under the sink end where it fit onto our disposal. I cleaned out as much of the grime on the disposal as I could reach before adding the new hose. (On the other hand, you probably don't need a new water feed line unless you're concerned about the state of your old one, as I was.) Strangely, my new dishwasher came with water in the pump already, some of which leaked out all over the floor when I took the cap off to put the drain line on. A towel to shove under there proved quite helpful - they suggest a shallow pan, but I didn't have one handy that would be that shallow.
Tools I ended up using: a screwdriver, a socket wrench set including a screwdriver-style handle for the sockets (which worked best at reaching the screw-with-outer-hex-head holding the electrical cover plate), an adustable wrench, channellock pliers (mostly to get my water shutoff valve fully shut off, since they're very stiff), a level, a couple boards to prop up the dishwasher while trying to adjust the levelling feet, a drill for screwing the holding brackets onto the countertop (pressboard-style countertop undersides are hard to screw into with a hand screwdriver), a sponge and towel, and a flashlight.
